Lamb, the aggressive founder of Lamb Development Corp., which has developed $1.3 billion in condominiums in Canadian cities and is constructing the Gotham and SoBa condo towers in Ottawa, presented a free workshop on real estate investing to some 340 people at The Westin last Saturday.

Dressed entirely in black, the physically imposing Lamb first led his audience - ranging from 20-somethings to boomers - through a dismal future scenario where inadequately funded public and private pension plans and limp RRSP returns will not meet Canadians' retirement needs (that's when he warned we could wind up "feasting on cat food").

Factoring in inflation, he says that someone retiring 30 years hence will need $2.1 million for a pension of $50,000 a year in today's dollars.

How to build such a staggering nest egg? By buying, renting and re-selling urban condos in a market that, based on the past 30 years of real estate performance in Ottawa, Lamb believes has nowhere to go over the long term but up.

Lamb's strategy requires $20,000 to start. That's your down payment on a small condo that is also your own residence. Using what he called conservative projections of four per cent annual growth in real estate values, he showed how you're soon able to use the equity in your unit to buy a second one. You rent that out for enough to cover its mortgage, condo fees and other costs and eventually sell it for a profit.

You continue buying, renting and re-selling units - all the while upgrading the one you live in - until you have a portfolio of five rental condos. That should take 12 years. Sit on the properties, with your tenants paying off your mortgages, for another 13 years and, a quarter-century after making your initial investment, you have enough assets to retire.

Boomers in the audience looked a little crestfallen when they realized it takes 25 years to get rich.

If they were still interested, however, there were brochures for SoBa and real estate representatives on hand.

Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty, no fan of debt among the citizenry, might bridle at Lamb's mortgage-heavy strategy, but the builder says (with his customary self-assurance), "Debt is how human beings get ahead."

Lamb addressed other issues in his 90-minute presentation including troublesome tenants who he says are few and far between when you're renting out a good-quality condo. However, he warns potential condo landlords that when it comes to late rent payments, "never give a tenant a break. This is a business."

Haide Ramirez and her husband say the seminar solidified their plans to become condo landlords within the next few years. "It's a long-term investment," says Ramirez.

Another attendee, Mehdi Shab-nam, wasn't so convinced. He lives in his own new condo and says his monthly condo fees unexpectedly jumped from $350 to $450 after one year because a consultant hired by the condominium board, of which Shabnam is a member, determined the reserve fund for repairs of common property such as the building exterior was insufficient.

On a rental property, such increases could mean you end up subsidizing your tenant, he says.

Lamb, speaking to the Citizen after the workshop, was convinced he's on the right track. "It annoys me our education system doesn't teach (retirement planning). Also, it doesn't hurt that I own properties, and some people (here) will buy some units."